Winning start for Team Connolly
By Andy Withers
Fox Sports, at Telstra Stadium
June 12, 2006

Australia 34 England 3
AUSTRALIA opened its new era under coach John Connolly with a solid performance from forwards and backs alike to defeat England in the first Cook Cup Test at Telstra Stadium last night.

The Wallabies and England both tried to play an adventurous brand of rugby, which provided for an entertaining spectacle, but Australia's superior execution, particularly in the second half, proved to the difference behind the sides.

The Wallabies scored three tries to none, with the five pointer for Test debutant tight-head prop Rodney Blake, wide on the left flank two minutes from time, a delight.

The 130kg juggernaut fielded a no-look pass from substitute flanker Phil Waugh to finish a fluid and sweeping move that seemed to highlight the best of the new approach under Connolly.

The try concluded a late flourish for the Wallabies as they ran over the top of England, touching down all of their five pointers in the final 20 minutes.

Much as the Wallabies' performance had a certain elan to it, Australia knows it has to improve as England could easily have been far closer on the scoreboard - if not in front - had it made the most of numerous opportunities, many involving young right wing Tom Varndell, in the first half.

England could, indeed should have scored three tries in the opening period but for either a poor final pass or a poor option.

Australia's scrums, particularly in the first half, were also a point of conjecture after the disaster at Twickenham last year.

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The first scrum of the match provided an indication of what was to come when Wallabies halfback and captain George Gregan - playing his world-record equalling 119th Test - was penalised for taking too long to feed the ball.

The Wallabies were penalised twice more in the first half for bringing down the scrum, with Irish referee Alan Lewis resorting to coaching the two packs on the art of scrummaging.

Lewis eventually called out Gregan to issue a warning to prop Greg Holmes.

"The loose head has got to hit up and bind up and I'm not going to watch them go down all day," Lewis said.

The warning proved to be a tonic for Australia, with England tight head Julian White penalised for buckling under pressure from Holmes in the first scrum of the second half.

Stirling Mortlock kicked his fourth penalty of the night to make the score 12-3 to Australia, and the Wallabies opened the floodgates from that point.

Connolly was pleased with his players' efforts, but he acknowledged the performance had plenty of room for improvement ahead of the second Test against England in Melbourne next weekend.

"I think we can improve across the board considerably," he said.

"It wasn't a great effort. We won the game, we're happy with that. We defended well and it's one step on the rung, isn't it.

"We've got a lot of work to do in all facets of the game, but it's a start and we were very rusty."

Connolly said the Wallabies were well aware of how England would defend, but he conceded his side "just didn't play well enough" to capitalise until midway through the second half".

"We've just got to play a lot better than that," he said.

The coach was happy with the Wallabies' lineout, though.

"(England has) a very competitive lineout - (prop Graham) Rowntree's a very good caller, (Louis) Deacon and all their three back rowers can jump, but we gave ourselves a pass mark there," he said.

Gregan, too, kept a measure of perspective on the performance.

"It's a starting point," Gregan said.

"We're not getting ahead of ourselves, but it was a good, positive start."

The injection of fresh faces into both sides - into the much maligned Wallabies pack, and the formerly staid England backline - reaped rich rewards, as they both stepped up on their most recent performances.

Australia's forwards were competitive in both set-pieces and at the breakdown - dominant, even, as the game progressed.

England's backs, who have only recently come under the tutelage of offensive guru Brian Ashton, were also full of attacking intent and invention, without the necessary execution, in the first half.

But the visitors faded as an attacking force in the second half as Australia's fresh faces in the forwards, who held an 853 to 801kg weight advantage over their less-experienced starting opponents, created a platform from which the old heads and hands in the backline were able to take best advantage.

Australia scored its first try halfway through the second half when five-eighth Stephen Larkham's threw cut-out pass to Mortlock which put the outside centre into space.

From there, he fed a short ball to Chris Latham, running on an angle, to hit the gap between inside centre Mike Catt and five-eighth Olly Barkley at full pace before stepping round full back Iain Balshaw to score under the posts.

Mark Gerrard scored the Wallabies' second try, touching down after substitute back Clyde Rathbone had scorched through the England backline, Rathbone's pace and show opening up the defensive alignment.

Balshaw seemed to have stemmed the attack with a desperate tackle on Rathbone, who looked to have bombed the opportunity by ignoring Gerrard to his right.

But his Brumbies teammate was alive to the opportunity, picking up the loose ball before falling over the line to touch down.

Australia had shown its attacking intentions direct from the kick-off when Larkham fed the backline across the face of the Wallabies goalposts, but England regathered the ball after Lote Tuqiri tried to chip over Varndell on the left wing.

Varndell was involved in many of England's best moments, and he seemed likely to score after 10 minutes, when Balshaw put him into space after a diagonal cross-field counter-attack launched when the Wallabies spilt the ball in contact.

But the Leicester speedster, making his run-on Test debut after scoring with his first touch as a substitute against Samoa last November, was unable to out run the tracking Larkham, and the Wallabies playmaker kicked the England man's attempted grubber kick into touch.

Twice on the 16-minute marker, Australia bombed good attacking opportunities, the final pass not going to hand, first to Tuqiri on the left wing, and then, from the ensuing recycled ball, Rocky Elsom spilling Latham's pass when he had a clear run to the line on the right flank.

Australia finally opened the scoring with a penalty goal from Mortlock in the 16th minute, the kick awarded on the 22 metres line just inside the left touchline after England failed to release the ball.

The Wallabies then seemed set to score their first try of the season when George Smith bust through the England defence after fielding the ensuing kick-off.

Smith fed Mortlock into space, and the Wallabies recycled fast ball to create a two-man overlap on the left, but Mat Rogers, playing his first Test at outside centre, failed to pass and the cover defence defused the opportunity.

Australia was in the ascendancy at this point, Latham making another cutting backline incision to put Tuqiri into space with a grubber kick, but Balshaw recovered the ball and England fashioned an opportunity of its own almost immediately.

Catt's cut-out pass over Mortlock, going for the intercept, put centre partner Matthew Tait into space, and the Newcastle man's fast hands put Varndell and Tom Voyce in space with a two-one-one overlap on the left flank.

Varndell butchered the opportunity, however, throwing an abysmal pass over Voyce's head into touch.

Balshaw thought he had scored in the first half when he crossed the line after Barkley opened Australia's defence with shallow grubber kicks behind the advancing line on two successive phases.

But the full back was denied by a fantastic scrambling attempt from Gregan, who held the Englishman up over the line.

Barkley finally opened England's account in the opening moments of the second half, kicking a penalty goal from inside the 22 metres line after the Wallabies had been penalised while defending multiple attacking phases.

But that marked the last substantial attacking from pressure from England, which was subsequently restricted by stifling defence to long-range forays that offered little genuine danger to Australia's line.